Andrew Jacob's Ragtime Blues (2001) was named after my first son (born the year I wrote it),
who loves to groove along with this (or any other) music.
The form is a series of 13 variations on what I believe is an old blues theme, although
I’m not actually sure what the original theme is called; it's just something I've been playing for years.
My wife pointed out that the theme’s first 4 bars resemble "Buckets of Rain," a Bob Dylan song from 1972's "Blood on the Tracks,"
but I'm pretty sure the origins of this tune are a lot older than that.
The harmony follows the standard 12-bar blues pattern throughout, although some variations (most notably #4) are a little “out there!”
The actual theme is not presented until the end, and even then it is played twice in different ways.
In spite of the fact that I play guitar, I have written very little for it (all of my commissions until 2005 have been for instruments
other than the guitar),
so one day I decided to have a little fun and write a few variations on a blues theme, and this is what I eventually came up with.
©Clark Winslow Ross
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